AMY LEVIN
President
Amy Levin launched Breakthrough Campaigns in the Summer of 2019. She also is a partner at Benenson Strategy Group.
She has worked at campaigns in every level across the country, with particularly strong expertise in the West. In Colorado, she polled for the independent-expenditure campaign to elect Jared Polis as governor and led the state polling for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign (along with all of its millennial research nationally). Her polling helped underdogs Deb Haaland and Nanette Barragan win tough intra-party contests for Congress in New Mexico and California, respectively. She continues to advise the Congresswomen as well as Representatives Harley Rouda and Josh Harder of California after helping them defeat long-time Republican incumbents in 2018.
Amy is particularly proud of her work with ballot initiative campaigns that have had a profound impact on people’s lives and showed progressive change in deep-red states is possible. After helping expand Medicaid in Maine in 2017, she joined teams in Utah, Idaho, and Nebraska to do the same in 2018. She also led the polling for successful campaigns to raise the minimum wage in Missouri and Arkansas, expand voting rights in Michigan, and crack down on payday lenders in Colorado.
Amy has advised leading issue-advocacy organizations including AARP, EMILY’s List, ACLU, Everytown, and SEIU-UHW. She is known for finding language that can persuade the middle while still motivating the base on issues including economic reforms, gun safety, reproductive rights, and immigration. Amy takes great pleasure in rooting out “advocate-speak” and “wonk-words.”
Amy’s specialties include the development of Value-Based Narratives. Using techniques that are equal parts art and science, Amy creates what she calls “the story of your values” — providing a durable through line for clients’ agendas, stories and messaging.
In the 2008 election cycle, Amy took a break from polling to write and produce ads on behalf of Obama for America and other campaigns.
Amy has a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and received a bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics from Harvard. She has also been commissioned a Kentucky Colonel.
Patrick Toomey is a senior vice president at Breakthrough Campaigns with extensive experience using research to build campaign and communications strategies. Patrick was part of the team that conducted the polling and message consulting for the Obama White House and has developed winning strategies for everything from tossup Senate races to progressive ballot initiatives in red states.
He has worked with organizations like DSCC, DCCC, EMILY's List, SEIU, The Fairness Project, and State Policy Advisors to advance progressive candidates and causes across the country.
Patrick also has years of experience working with foundations, nonprofits, and advocacy groups to drive behavioral and attitudinal change. He is particularly focused on the lived experiences of young people and LGBTQ+ people – especially their political engagement, digital lives, and emotional wellbeing – and is very proud of his work as the lead researcher for Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation. He also has helped organizations identify content strategies to build empathy among conservatives and is passionate about efforts to prevent radicalization.
Patrick grew up year-round on Martha’s Vineyard and earned his bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He lives in New York and Los Angeles.
PATRICK
TOOMEY
Senior Vice President
LINDSAY
VERMEYEN
Senior Vice President
Lindsay Vermeyen is a senior vice president at Breakthrough Campaigns. With a background in political and advocacy campaigns, Lindsay uses qualitative and quantitative research to help craft strategic communications for her clients.
Lindsay has worked closely with Amy on winning campaigns at every level – from LAUSD school board, to congress, to statewide ballot initiatives, and to the presidency. In the 2016 cycle, Lindsay helped manage polling in Colorado and with millennials nationally for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. In the 2018 cycle, she worked with Rep. Josh Harder to flip CA-10 from Red to Blue, helped elect the first openly gay governor of Colorado, and expand voting rights in Michigan.
Additionally, Lindsay has conducted research for progressive advocacy groups and nonprofits across the country such as Everytown for Gun Safety, the Movement Advancement Project, EMILY’s List, and Planned Parenthood. She has also helped progressives in Colorado and New Mexico craft their own state- and values-based Narratives, co-authoring handbooks for these coalitions.
Before she was a pollster, Lindsay was an associate at Dewey Square Group, where she helped coordinate statewide and national grassroots and public relations campaigns for clients, including the Pew Environment Group’s Clean Energy Campaign. She also directed patient, volunteer, and community outreach for two free health clinics in Southern California – Maria Shriver’s Modern House Call for Women in Long Beach and CareNow in Los Angeles – which provided free medical, dental, and vision care to thousands of underserved people in Los Angeles over the course of several days.
Originally from Portland, Oregon, Lindsay lives with her husband and daughter in Santa Monica. She holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Southern California.